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Friday, December 17, 2010

Growing up my dad always made fresh egg nog every Christmas. I just love the taste of the creamy blended milk and cinnamon.

But this is not an egg nog recipe. I will admit I am a little afriad to eat raw eggs now days. Even though I know it is really OK. I would prefer to make egg nog with fresh eggs from the farmers market, not store bought eggs.

So I thought, well, I'll just make something without the egg.

And here is what I came up with!

Milk Shake

8 oz of whole milk

a huge heaping scoop of plain greek yogurt

1 tsp of vanilla

sprinkles of cinnamon

a few squirts of agave nectar

a bit of ice

Put all ingredients in your blender and blend until smooth and frothy.

Enough to share!

I accidentally put in to much cinnamon this morning. I made this last night too and I had the perfect amount. But that's ok.....did you know cinnamon is really good for you?

These milk shakes are sooooooooooooo good. They are a comfort food for me.

Today my dad is flying in for a week! Sophie and I are going to pick him up at the airport at lunchtime.

So I'll ask him for his egg nog recipe.

We will celebrate Christmas early next week and then the girls and hubby and I and grandpa will fly to Minnesota on Christmas day.

The boys are going to stay home because they both have jobs and they will feed the cows, take care of the dogs, keep the house spotless in case there is a showing.......

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Last night Sophie had a hankering to do the dishes. So I threw caution to the wind and said...

WHY NOT?

Right before that, me and the girls declared it was going to be a GIRLS NIGHT!!!

Which means I made brownies from scratch and we were gonna eat them with Breyers mint chocolate chip ice cream. Cuz if there is one thing my dad taught me, it is that Breyers is the ONLY brand of ice cream you buy.

We decided to include hubby in girls night. Just as soon as Soph was done with the dishes.

So in the above photo, Soph has drenched her shirt and is screaming wildly, so her big sis Lolli, or

Koeten, as Soph calls her...

Koeten went to comfort her and take her shirt off.

Another

WHY NOT??

I say, WHY NOT, do the dishes topless!

As all good dishwashers do, Soph proceeded to lick all the chocolate off the utensils in the dirty sink before she put them in the dishwasher... ya, I had a hard time with that one too.

But....heck........WHY NOT!

I say if everything is going to pot, you might as well have some chocolate.

She rinsed and soaped up and scrubbed and when Koeten tried to help her put a measuring cup in,

out came the shrill death scream again.

Sister

she was doin this

on.

her.

own.

So eventually I had to pry her cold soapy hands from the dishes that were left,

to big for her to throw in...and give her a bath.

Actually Koeten gave her a bath..

We all worked together, I cleaned up the kitchen, hubby finished the dishes, Koeten bathed Soph and Portia put laundry away.

And then we all had brownie's with ice cream and chocolate syrup!

And after everyone went to bed , except me and Lolli...

We watched a cake show and dreamed up what our own bakery will look like some day.

We decided on a vintage interior with all pink appliances and white buffalo china.

Note to hubby, said china is for sale at Williams Sonoma. We could test it out at Stella's.

(Stella's would be what hubby calls our kitchen).

We will serve pastries:

cookies,

pie

cake

donuts

whatever Rue (Lauren) comes up with.

Poor girl has to many nicknames...

And we are going to wear pink waitress dresses with white aprons and serve coffee and pastries.

No espresso, this is vintage, well maybe chai tea.

This night has left me asking myself

WHY NOT?

As I watched the cake show with my creative apprentice I remembered the phrase:

Friday, December 10, 2010

I am in love with cookbooks, I can't keep myself from buying them. This recipe is from
365 Quick, Easy & Inexpensive Dinner Menus. I have tried several recipes from this cookbook. Some of them though just have awful sounding words in their names....Do you feel that way too?

If the name of the recipe has the word SUPRISE or SAVORY or CREAMY MUSHROOM, you all can bet I run far, far away from that one. What is the surprise in Beef Surprise? Or Chicken Supreme with Mushroom Sauce? aucky

But today's recipe is so good, so flavorful, I have made it twice in one week. Nic requested it for his birthday dinner! With 7 of us eating, I still have leftovers for tonight! The original recipe does not call for garlic, but I love garlic and as I told someone recently, I just feel like a good mom when I add garlic to meals, wierd, I know, but true... I put 3 cloves of crushed garlic into the hamburger while cooking. I use the pampered chef garlic crusher, which is so old, I probably need a new one! Anyone sell Pampered Chef?

In a large soup pan, cook pasta shells according to package directions. Add butter to pasta while cooking. When shells are cooked, drain and rinse in cold water. In a skillet, brown ground beef with chopped onions and green pepper. At this time add garlic. Add salt and stir often. When meat is cooked and vegetables are tender, drain off all grease and pat meat with an absorbent paper towel.
Let meat cool. Add one cup mixed shredded cheese to the meat. Stuff each large pasta shell with the hamburger and cheese mixture. Lay open side down in a greased baking dish. Pour jar of sauce over all filled shells.
Bake at 350 for 20 min. Top shells with remaining shredded cheese and return to oven to bake for 5 more minutes.

Serve with tossed salad and garlic bread sticks.

I forgot to take a picture of the shells in the pan before the sauce!!!!

And now.....

Some action shots of the boys wrestling after dinner!

Yes if you have little guys right now, this is what they will be doing the rest of their lives.

At this point, Nic is in the fetal position on the floor........

From the bottom:

Josh

Nic

Portia

Sophie

Then Sophie started attacking Portia.

BUT....

It was nice to have all my kids home for dinner and around the table. This is rare.

The boys are usually working.

Can I tell just how happy that makes me?

So very happy, when all my children are home for dinner, safe and sound.

I do wish my husband would put his phone away, but I am only seen as a nag when I mention how rude it is to check your phone at dinner.....

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Galations 5:22-24
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature it's passions and desire.

Well, I do belong to Christ Jesus, yet I really have a hard time displaying the fruit of the spirit! Why is this so hard? So as I'm starting to think of my resolutions for next year, (did I even accomplish those for this year?) I am thinking, this verse takes care of it all.